


Melting

by BradyGirl_12



Category: Emergency!
Genre: 1970s, 20th Century, Angst, Burns, Death References, Drama, Dreams, Established Relationship, Fire, Firefighters, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Male Slash, Nightmares, Slash, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-17
Updated: 2012-01-17
Packaged: 2017-10-29 17:18:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/322259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BradyGirl_12/pseuds/BradyGirl_12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nightmares visit Johnny after a particularly bad fire.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Melting

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Description of burn victims  
> Original LJ Date Of Completion: July 12, 2010  
> Original LJ Date Of Posting: July 12, 2010  
> Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, Universal does, more’s the pity.  
> Original LJ Word Count: 679  
> Feedback welcome and appreciated.  
> Couldn’t help myself! Here’s more _Emergency!_ fic! Hope you like it!

_Flames shot up from the warehouse, fed by the chemicals stored inside. Johnny staggered out with a victim in a fireman’s carry. He carefully laid the man down. The victim coughed, grimacing as the pain from his burns throbbed. Luckily they weren’t life-threatening but would definitely need treatment._

_Johnny gave the treatment while in touch with Rampart, Dixie Mc Call’s cool voice instructing him, then Kelly Brackett took over. The ambulance arrived and the patient was whisked away._

_Smoke billowed out as firemen trained their hoses on the building, and Johnny prepared to go back in._

_Chet and Marco hurried out, carrying another victim. They put him down on the ground with extreme gentleness and Johnny saw that the victim was wearing a turnout coat. Was it Mike or Cap or…?_

_“Roy!” he yelled, running toward the victim._

_Cap appeared and grabbed Johnny’s shoulders. “No, Johnny!”_

_Chet and Marco looked down sadly at the victim, tears streaming down their faces as Mike joined them, his face a mask of sorrow. Johnny felt his heart lurch._

_“No, I have to treat him. Roy needs me!”_

_Johnny wrenched away from Cap, the smell of charred flesh hitting him like a slap in the face. His stomach roiled. He would never get used to that smell._

_“I’m coming, Roy! Hang on! I’ll fix you up, don’t you worry.”_

_Johnny felt panic lurking at the edges of his mind but continued to run, afraid that he’d be stuck in place. His legs churned as the concrete turned to tar, the crackle of flames growing louder as the black smoke belched toward the maddened sky, red and yellow and orange melting together like the colors on a canvas left out in the rain. Fire seemed to burn from the inside out, his vision swimming in red as the flames leapt higher. Somewhere he could hear screams of agony. He knelt by his lover and turned him over._

_Shock jolted his body into rigidity, his heart nearly stopping._

_The body laid out before him was no longer the beautiful man he knew and cherished. It was nothing more than a burned-out husk._

_He could feel the screams start to build deep within him as he began to melt, tears running down like a candle’s wax into the bubbling concrete..._

& & & & & &

“It’s all right, it’s all right, Johnny.”

Roy held onto his sobbing lover for dear life, Johnny’s fingers digging into his arms. He’d have bruises on his fair skin, but he didn’t care. He knew exactly what was going on when he’d been awakened by Johnny’s screams. The fire from last week in which he’d been caught…his bandaged left hand rubbed up and down Johnny’s back as he rocked slightly, his lover shaking in his arms…had been a bad one. Another bandage was wrapped around his left arm and more around his ribs. The burns were the worse he’d ever suffered in his job, though they would heal with time. Johnny had treated his injuries professionally, but Roy had felt the trembling in his partner’s hands as he’d worked on him, the flames carving his face into a mask of pain, reflected glinting in his midnight hair.

He knew exactly what kind of nightmare Johnny had suffered, because he’d had similar ones about Johnny in the past.

“It’s okay, let it out, let it out,” he soothed, his good hand tangled in Johnny’s raven hair. His own heart pounded as he kissed his lover’s temple.

Johnny grasped Roy's face, frantic brown eyes searching, his long, trembling fingers stroking smooth skin over and over.

Johnny finally began to calm down, though his shudders indicated he was still remembering what he’d seen in the nightmare. Roy used the sheet to wipe away Johnny’s tears, his own eyes prickling, and laid them back down as he pulled the sheet and blanket up over their bodies. Neither man spoke, but clung tightly to each other as moonlight streamed through the windows of their bedroom.

There was a special kind of hell in firefighters’ nightmares.


End file.
